Pokémon: The Final Season
by Aoi Hyoudou
Summary: This is it... the final season. Ash embarks on his final journey to New Hope Island to participate in Coco City's World Championship League tournament. Along the way, he will meet old friends, old rivals, old enemies, and new foes alike. With the world hanging in the balance, what will Ash do to save it? Inspired by PaulXion's Pokémon: The Final Journey. AshHarem


**Aoi Hyoudou:** It's 2013! And just like I promised in 2012 I'll be working on **Pokémon: The Final Season**! Well...alongside with **PokéHearts: The Chosen One's Fate and Destiny**, of course. Anyway, like before I already asked PaulXion for his approval to use some of his ideas. So basically, most of the credit goes to him. XD As for the poll that I posted in 2012, it seems like most of you voted for...Cynthia! At first, I thought May was going to win the poll but over time Cynthia somehow took the lead. I don't blame most of you who voted for Cynthia. I like her too! XD But there's still time to vote. So...until now and then...the main pairing could always change. And before I forget, there will be a small dose of harem in the story to please some of you. So, please don't thank me just yet. And wait...! Before you get started reading the chapter, there's one more thing I've to tell you. Ash's age will be 16 not 10. The story will pretty explained itself. With that out of the way, please enjoy the first chapter!

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**The Invitation**

{...}

Our story begins in Pallet Town, the home of Ash Ketchum, a Pokémon trainer whose dream is to become the world's greatest Pokémon Master, if not in history. It had been three years - three long years since his Unova journey. He spent most of his time at home doing nothing but serious training, not only with his Pokémon but with himself as well, both physically and mentally. He was no longer a little kid that Iris always teased him about. No. He was now a matured young man, but despite that... he still acted like a little kid from time to time, according to Gary Oak and a few others at least. And within those three years since his last journey he had accomplished a lot. He had beaten the Unova Conference after his second try and defeated Pokémon League Champion Alder to become the youngest champion in Unova region history at the age of fifteen. More so, he even went on and became the new champion of Kanto after defeating the previous Pokémon League Champion when competing in the Indigo League for the second time. Now, at the age of sixteen, Ash felt like there was still more to accomplish than just being champion in both Kanto and Unova. Sure, he was happy that he got the recognition that he rightfully deserved for his amazing accomplishments at such a young age from his friends and family. But still... he didn't feel like he was satisfied enough. Until he beat all the obstacles that stood in his way, he could never claim the "one" title that he worked so hard for to reach and that's to be...a Pokémon Master.

But for now... Ash needed to figure out what's his next plan of action was going to be. He could always go on a journey, but then again...it would just leave him and Pikachu since he already knew that most of his friends were probably busy with their own lives to spend any time with him these days despite the fact that he was a famous Pokémon Trainer and all. If that's the case, he could always go for the other regions, like Johto, maybe Hoenn, or even Sinnoh, perhaps. A dream match with Cynthia would be something else. He'd heard that she hadn't lost a title match thus far since he last saw her. So, maybe challenging the Lily of the Valley Conference again could be a good possibility for him, if he chose to travel all the way to Sinnoh, of course. He decided to think it over some more.

But now wasn't the time to make any hasty decisions.

Unless... Ash was in the mood to do so.

_'What to do. What to do...'_ the young champion pondered as he was lying on his bed with both arms resting underneath his head, staring off into space at the ceiling in deep thought. _'Hmm...'_

After a few more minutes of lying around, the ebony haired teen felt totally restless and decided to get up from his bed. Once he did a few exercise stretches to relax his muscles, he walked over and approached his dresser where there were two small photo frames set on top of it. Ash studied each one carefully.

The first photo was taken during the final conclusion when he defeated Alder for his title to become the new Pokémon League Champion of Unova. And ironic enough Alder with a big grin on his face was in the picture with him wrapping an arm around the new champion in a friendly headlock with his two friends Cilan and Iris standing in the background laughing at the scene.

That's Alder for you.

Soon the auburn eyed teenager moved his attention to the second picture frame. It too had some fond memories, like the first one. It was taken at the end of the Indigo League where he won it all. All his past and present friends and rivals were in it with him holding the Indigo trophy and smiling at the camera. But then Ash noticed something unique about the photo. All his former female traveling companions were around him and quite close. Misty was doing a peace sign while leaning against his right side. May too was doing the peace sign but leaning against his left. Dawn and Iris were both standing right behind him with one of their hands taking a hold of both of his shoulders while smiling and winking at the camera.

What a warm reunion on that day.

Those two photos put a warm smile on Ash's face. He wished he could see his friends again. He knew that it'd only been six months after his Indigo victory and three months since his sixteenth birthday, but still he just wished he could see them one more time.

"Ash! Lunch is ready!" a familiar voice yelled from downstairs, which brought the Pokémon Trainer back to the present.

It was his mother.

"Okay Mom!" he yelled back.

Not wanting to skip lunch Ash quickly exited his room and hurried downstairs to the kitchen.

{...}

"Mmm mmm mmmm... This is so good!" the ebony haired teen chirped digging in on his delicious lunch that his mother made for him.

Pikachu had to agree with his trainer as he was sitting on the kitchen table munching away on Pokémon food that his trainer's mother made for him. His meal tasted so good. Who would've thought Ash's mother was good in making both human and Pokémon food?

Delia, who was busy washing some dishes, couldn't help but giggle at her son's silly little antics. Same old Ash. He might've grown up a little bit, but he was still her little Ashy. Nothing would ever change that.

Over an hour flew by with the two Ketchums having short mother-son conservation. Once they were done finishing up with their own thing there was something that the young mother had totally forgot to bring up until she finally remembered what it was. "Oh! Before I totally forget Ash, something came for you in the mail."

"Oh?" Now the young male was curious as to what it was that came for him in the mailbox. "What is it?" he asked his mother, interested.

Instead of giving her son a reply the brown haired woman simply pulled out a white envelope from her pants pocket that had a red seal logo on it in a form of a Pikachu face and handed it over to him. Ash blinked at the sudden letter but accepted it nonetheless. He studied it for a few seconds and quickly noticed that there were no indications as to who sent him the envelope. It just had his name on it, 'Ash Ketchum'. And when he flipped it to the backside, it indeed had a red seal sticker that looked like the face of a happy Pikachu. How cute. Even his Pikachu, who was now perching on his shoulder, thought it was cool to see its own face on the envelope.

While her son was busy pulling out what seemed to be some kind of invitation from the white envelope and reading it over carefully with Pikachu, Delia took the time to study her boy. In the past couple of years, her Ashy has grown into one handsome young man. No longer did he have those baby fat cheeks. Although... she just wished he could at least got a new haircut during his growing phrase. His messy black hair was getting pretty long, even to the point where it was reaching his shoulders. Anyway, apart from his hairdo he had grown a few inches from the past two years. And his body did look a bit mildly built thanks to the years that he took off from his last journey to come home and train nonstop with his Pokémon and himself. Also, he was only wearing a simple black shirt and a pair of blue pants.

It was nice having her baby boy at home to keep her company from time to time but deep down inside she knew that it was only a matter of time before he goes off on another crazy adventure and leave her alone with Mr. M—

"Awesome!" Delia quickly snapped out from her thoughts and looked forward where she noticed that her Ashy was standing up from his seat with a big grin on his face that clearly matched Pikachu's. The pair was super excited and pumped up about something.

"What's awesome honey?" the young mother asked, half-interested knowing that her worry intuition was catching up to her.

"It's an invitation." Ash faced his mother and started to explain while still grinning. "An invitation to participate in Coco City's World Championship League tournament on New Hope Island near Sinnoh." While Delia couldn't be any happier for her dear son there was another part of her that didn't want him to leave just yet. "It's being sponsored by both the founder of New Hope Island Mr. Az...uma Kazuma... and the president of the Pokémon League Committee Charles Goodshow. They're inviting all the top Pokémon trainers in the world to battle for the undisputed title: Pokémon Champion of the World!" he added with a glee look on his face.

"That's sounds nice." The brown-haired woman tried to sound excited like her son but failed. "When does it start?" she asked regardless what she was feeling right now.

"Err..." the young champion took a second to look over his invitation to see when the big competition was taking place before facing his mother once again and answered, "About three months from now."

A wave of relief fell on Delia. That was some good news. That meant he wouldn't be leaving home anytime soon.

Yeah, right! Who was she trying to kid? This was Ash she was dealing with here.

"That settles it!" That didn't surprise her one bit after hearing that coming from her Ashy. "I'm leaving right now." he exclaimed with the thrill in defeating all the top trainers that he would meet and come across in the competition.

"But why now Ash?" Even though she already knew the answer she just pretended that she didn't. "I mean you still have at least two months to prepare for the tournament. There's no need for you to be in such a rush sweetie."

"I know Mom but the sooner I leave now the sooner I get to battle all those top trainers in the competition." the ebony haired teen told his mother, who simply sighed. "And the extra training along the way could do me some good to prepare for the league." Delia sighed again.

It looked like she just couldn't win sometimes. If she can't stop him from leaving and going off to enter another league then she'd just do what a good parent would do for their kid when they make up their mind and that was support his decision no matter what. "Fine, but at least wait until tomorrow. I need some time to prepare your things for your trip."

"Sure. I have no problem with that." Ash gave his mother a smile.

Delia returned the smile. Her son was acting quite mature. She would've thought by now that he would start complaining about the small delay in his plans, but she guessed that staying home for one more day wasn't much of a big deal to him. He had all the time in the world to make it to New Hope Island before the World Championship League tournament began.

With the Pokémon Trainer promising his mom that he wouldn't be leaving home until tomorrow to start off his new journey to New Hope Island he decided to do one another thing to pass the time and that was to pay a little visit to Professor Oak's laboratory. "Since I'm leaving tomorrow I should stop by at Professor Oak's to see which of my Pokémon I should take with me on my journey." he said aloud.

That sounded like a good plan. But before he could even step out of the house through the backdoor his mother suddenly stopped him in his tracks by bringing up something embarrassing that he didn't want to hear. "Oh, wait, Ash before you go—" She gained his attention as he turned and faced her direction. "—do you want me to pack your new set of underwear on your journey?"

"Mom!"

{...}

Meanwhile elsewhere, in a dark, dark room within an unknown location, a figure that couldn't be identified due to the darkness that surrounded the whole area, was watching a certain Pokémon Trainer and his previous battles from a few years ago through a laptop monitor. The shady character was analyzing and studying every ounce of the boy's weaknesses and strong points with very, very close eyes.

_Knock, knock, knock._

"Come in." the figure spoke in a deep voice indicating that it was a male in his fifties.

In no time the sound of an opened door echoed in the air with a small amount of light pouring into the room. And standing in the doorway was a blonde man in his early thirties with a mustache and a pointy beard that matched his menacing yellow eyes. He was dressed like a butler. But the bone-chilling aura around him told another story. He was no ordinary butler. The man was simply there to report in to his master. And once he was granted permission to enter the room, he simply placed a hand over his chest and bowed slightly to his master who was sitting behind a desk.

"All the invitations that you requested have been sent, master." the blonde butler informed in a deep chilling tone.

"Including his?"

A stiff nod immediately answered the older male's question.

"Excellent," A mischievous smirk tugged against the corners of the nameless man's lips. Soon he would return his attention back to his laptop where the monitor was zooming in on an old video of Ash celebrating his victory over former Pokémon Unova League Champion Alder with the Unova League trophy cup in hand. "Everything is going exactly according to plan." he chuckled evilly at the sight of Ash's face.

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**A/N: OMG! Was that Giovanni?! LOL. I'm just kidding. Or am I? Okay, enough with the jokes. Did you guys enjoy reading the first chapter of this story? What did you think of it? Give me your feedbacks. And also, which of Ash's Pokémon from all five regions apart from the ones that are still out in training do you want to see evolve in the story as time goes on. I already have some of his Pokémon evolved during his reign as 'champion' in both Kanto and Unova. But I want to hear it from you guys. Don't forget to R & R! The next chapter will be posted after chapter 4 for PokéHearts: The Chosen One's Fate and Destiny is done and posted. Until next time, folks!**

**P.S.** - **Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader,** _Vandenbz_**.**

**Aoi Hyoudou** (formerly known as Johan07)


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